Despite drubbing, SP-Cong alliance to take on BJP in UP bypoll

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance is gearing up to take on the BJP in the impending by-election to two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, which are likely to fall vacant, following election of incumbent MPs Yogi Adityanath and Keshav Prasad Maurya to coveted posts of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively.

Though Yogi Adityanath delivered his farewell speech in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday last, but both Yogi and Maurya are likely to resign from the Lok Sabha membership after the election of the President of India in July. As per constitutional obligations, both the leaders need to be elected to either House of the bicameral UP Legislature within six months from taking oath of office.

The deadline for both leaders is September 15. The SP hopes that the by-election in the two seats could facilitate the laying of the foundation of Mahagathbandhan (MGB) against the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The MGB will also include Bahujan Samaj Party. The BSP as per established practice never participates in bypolls.

A statistical assessment of the recent Assembly poll results indicate that if seat-wise votes of the SP, BSP and Congress were added and there were a MGB like Bihar then the BJP would have got only 90 seats while the grand alliance would have pocketed 313 seats. SP sources said that the party is yet to explore and consider the issue.

A SP leader said that the party will like to field its candidate at Phulpur Lok Sabha seat to be vacated by Keshav Prasad Maurya and it will extend its support to the Congress in Gorakhpur seat. As BSP did not fight the bypolls in the past and they would continue the same in the coming one, hence it would be the SP-Congress alliance which will take the front seat in the opposition against the formidable BJP. Sources also said that if the votes of the three parties –SP, Congress and BSP, come under one umbrella then it could pose a formidable challenge to the BJP.

The SP would prefer a candidate from Kurmi community in Phulpur and a Brahmin candidate by the Congress from Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat. The first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used to contest from Phulpur seat. From 1989 Lok Sabha poll onwards, candidate from the Kurmi community from Janata Dal and later from the BSP was elected to the Lok Sabha from this seat. Sources said that the Congress too famous to contest the Lok Sabha bypoll in alliance with Samajwadi Party.

Congress sources said that the elevation of Yogi, a Rajput, has revived the traditional caste lines of the two dominant communities –Brahman–Rajput in UP. Congress hopes to cash in on it by playing the fault lines to win over its traditional vote bank -Brahmins. An earlier attempt by the Congress to attract Brahmins ahead of UP Assembly poll by projecting Sheila Dikshit as the CM face came a cropper as the party decided to stitch an alliance with Samajwadi Party. (UNI)